PNC Park is a baseball stadium located in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. It opened in 2001, shortly after the controlled implosion of
Three Rivers Stadium.
PNC Park is home to the Pirates, Pittsburgh's Major League Baseball team,
and is named after PNC Bank, which bought the naming rights.
Left
Field - 325 ft
Left-Center - 389 ft
Center Field - 399 ft
Right-Center - 375 ft
Right Field - 320 ft
Backstop - 52 ft
The stadium was built with public money after a long political debate.
Mayor Tom Murphy originally proposed a sales tax increase to fund building
of PNC Park and Heinz Field, but this proposal was rejected in a
referendum. Mayor Murphy changed the funding plan, called it "Plan
B", and put it into effect.
PNC Park was the smallest of the new major league baseball stadiums to
be built in recent years. It was the first permanent facility to be built
for a major league baseball team that hosted fewer than 40,000 since Milwaukee
County Stadium over 50 years earlier, which was later expanded.
PNC Park was also the first to be built with two decks rather than
three - most of the club seats are actually located within the upper deck
- since County Stadium. It also has the smallest capacity of any stadium
in the National League, only slightly smaller than Wrigley
Field (Fenway
Park is a few thousand seats smaller). The stadium includes 2,800 club
seats, 69 luxury suites, and 4 party suites. Seats behind home plate are
only about 50 feet from the batter's box.
Fly
to PNC Park!
If you have Google
Earth installed, click here
to be "flown" to the site of PNC Park. (If you do not have
it installed, get
it from Google. It allows you to view virtually anywhere on
Earth in 3D using satellite imagery.)
The stadium is often noted for its physical beauty, with the Allegheny
River and the Roberto Clemente Bridge - named for Roberto Clemente, the
Pirates right fielder from 1955-1972 - beyond right field. (Another nod to
the late Hall of Famer is in right field, where the outfield fence reaches
a height of 21 feet—Clemente wore number 21, which the Pirates have
retired.)
The right field view also offers a wide view of the downtown Pittsburgh
skyline across the river. An ESPN study recently named PNC Park "the
best stadium in baseball." The stadium will also host the 2006
All-Star Game.
PNC Park is just up the Allegheny River from the sites of two of the
Pirates' previous ballparks, Three Rivers Stadium and Exposition Park. The
latter also afforded its spectators a broad view of downtown Pittsburgh,
such as it was in the early 1900s.
PNC Park!
View of
Pittsburgh's Golden Triangle from PNC
Park. This photo was shot on 07/18/2004.
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PNC PARK
Interior escalators of PNC Park, Pittsburgh as seen on 09/22/2001.
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